


Loki of Asgard

by Reed_Zone_Alert (Eliza_Reed)



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, EVERYONE EXCEPT STUPID THANOS IS BABY, Fix-It of Sorts, Genderfluid Loki (Marvel), LOKI IS BABY, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Loki Lives (Marvel), Protective Tony Stark, STRANGE IS BABY, Thanos must die, Tony Stark Has Issues, lots of tags, stabby stab stab
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:14:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25887913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eliza_Reed/pseuds/Reed_Zone_Alert
Summary: At that moment, Loki and Bruce stepped out from behind Stephen simultaneously. Loki smirked in amusement and greeted, "Mr. Stark. Hm, a little more grey than I remember. Did the stress of my throwing you- gack!!!"Tony had grabbed Loki by the throat with both hands. "Give me one good reason not to strangle you to death right here and now.""I yield, I yield-" Loki slapped at Tony's hand frantically, trying to get him to let go."For goodness sakes, Tony- he's on our side!" Bruce pried Tony's hand off Loki's neck and pushed the two of them away from each other."You betcha the fate of the universe is at stake if he's involved," Tony growled.Stephen sighed tiredly, shaking his head. He could tell this was going to be a long day.~~~~~Note: This fic will cover Infinity War, the time between it and Endgame, and then Endgame itself. It may also cover some of the time afterwards.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> All movie dialogue belongs to Marvel, not me. Also, updates are probably gonna be really slow with this...

**_"This is the Asgardian refugee vessel Statesman. We are under assault, I repeat, we are under assault - The engines are dead, life support failing. Requesting aid from any vessel within range. We are twenty two jump points out of Asgard. Our crew is made up of Asgardian families, we have very few soldiers here. This is not a warcraft. I repeat, this is not a warcraft!"_ **

~

Inside the ship, Ebony Maw walked amongst the dead bodies of mercilessly slaughtered Asgardians. Maw stepped over them carelessly. Loki could only stare silently at the destruction laid out before him. _They are all dead_ _... because I practically_ lead _him here..._

"Hear me, and rejoice," Ebony Maw called out to the remaining Asgardians that were still alive. Loki gave the alien a sharp glare. He never much liked his face and was now regretting not giving into the urge to kill Ebony Maw where he slept when he had the chance. Oh well. Too late now. "You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan..." Did this moron _ever_ stop practically kissing Thanos' _butt_ _?_ "You may think this is suffering... No. it is _salvation_. Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile..." 

A Black Order warrior stabbed another Asgardian and let their body fall lifelessly to the floor.

"... for even in death, you have become Children of Thanos..."

Oh, how _reassuring_. In all honesty, Loki would much rather fall into another black hole than listen to another second of Maw's garbage.

Thanos stood in front of a window, taking in the pristine view. "I know what it's like to lose. To _feel_ so desperately that you're right... yet to fail, nonetheless." Thanos lifted an injured, dazed Thor my the neck. "It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you, to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now, it's here. Or should I say... _I AM."_

Thanos held up his hand to reveal the Infinity Gauntlet, which already contained the Power Stone. It glowed a soft purple in the dim lightning.

"You talk too much," Thor said weakly.

"The Tesseract, or your brother's head," Thanos told Loki. "I assume you have a preference."

There was some hesitation before Loki replied. "Oh, I do. Kill away." Without hesitation, Thanos pressed the gauntlet to Thor's left temple, making the Asgardian scream, his face contorted in pain.

 _"ALL RIGHT, STOP!!!"_ Loki shouted.

"We don't have the Tesseract," Thor told Thanos. "It was destroyed on Asgard."

 _Oh brother. Still so naive,_ Loki thought, lifting his hand and letting the Tesseract materialise onto his hand. He knew what his brother was thinking before he even said it, and it stung.

"You really are the worst brother," Thor said.

"I assure you, brother... the sun will shine on us again," Loki told him, his voice low and soft. 

Thanos raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian."

"Well, for one thing, I'm not Asgardian," Loki replied. "And for another... we have a Hulk." Had the situation not been so dire, he might have laughed at the fact that he had just echoed Tony Stark's words from so many years ago.

Thanos whirled to his right just as an angry green mass smashed into him. Loki dove for Thor, jerking him to safety as the Tesseract skittered across the floor. Maw stopped his companion from interfering, smirking in amusement. "Let him have his fun..."

Thanos tore the Hulk's hands away. An expression of confusion and horror crossed the Hulk's green face. After several hard blows, Thanos hoisted up the Hulk and slammed him hard into the metal floor. Thor slammed a metal bar across Thanos' back. A useless move, since Thanos was completely unfazed. Thor was kicked across the floor by Thanos and then swiftly wrapped in metal debris by Ebony Maw to keep him from interfering further.

Heimdall, who was lying on the floor, wheezed something incomprehensible, clutching his sword tightly in his hands.

Loki turned and looked at Thor with wide eyes. He opened his mouth to speak and reached a hand forward, only for he and his unspoken words to be engulfed in the beam of the Bifrost along with the Hulk.

* * *

Doctor Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, proceeded down the main steps of the Sanctum with Wong. "Seriously? You don't have _any_ money?"

"Attachment to the material is detachment from the spiritual," Wong replied stoically, as if that made the situation any better.

"I'll tell the guys at the deli," Stephen said wryly, barely refraining from rolling his eyes. He couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice though. "Maybe they'll make you a metaphysical ham on rye."

"Oh, wait, wait, wait, I think I have 200."

Stephen regarded him with a look of disbelief. "Dollars?"

"Rupees," Wong answered.

"Which is...?"

"Uh, buck... and a half..."

"What do you want?" Stephen asked.

"I wouldn't say no to a tuna melt."

Suddenly, without any warning, an unidentified flying object smashed violently through the roof of the Sanctum, then promptly crushed the stairs where Stephen and Wong had been walking just a few seconds ago. The Cloak of Levitation swirled towards its master and settled itself on Stephen's shoulders. The two sorcerers peered down into the gaping hole, waiting for the dust to clear and reveal the culprit. When it did, they could just make out the forms of two people, one of whom Stephen recognised. 

"Loki Odinson," Stephen greeted blandly, not at all glad to see the Jotun. "What brings you back to Earth? Take a wrong turn on your way to Asgard or something?"

"Thanos..." Loki coughed violently from the dust. Bruce, who was no longer the Hulk, wasn't in much better condition.

"Thanos?" Stephen and Wong glanced at each other, sharing a blank look. Then the former looked back down at Loki. _"Why_ are you here, Loki? Explain."

"Thanos... is coming..." Loki gasped. "He won't stop until he... has _that..."_ The Jotun lifted a trembling hand and pointed weakly at the Eye of Agamotto, which hung around Stephen's neck. "And then... he'll kill us all..."

* * *

"...No more surprises. We're gonna have a nice dinner tonight. Show off this Harry Win-stone. Right? And we should have no more surprises. Ever. I should promise you."

"Yes," Pepper said, raising an eyebrow skeptically. 

"I will," Tony promised, right before pulling her into his arms slowly and then kissing her.

At that moment, Stephen steps out of a portal to see the pair of lovebirds smooching. He cleared his throat awkwardly, his nose wrinkling slightly at the sight. "Tony Stark, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me. Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way."

"I'm sorry, you giving out tickets or something?" Tony asked, staring in shock.

"We need your help," Stephen said. "Look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake."

"And who's 'we?'"

At that moment, Loki and Bruce stepped out from behind Stephen simultaneously. Loki smirked in amusement and greeted, "Mr. Stark. Hm, a little more grey than I remember. Did the stress of my throwing you- _g_ _ack!!!"_

Tony had grabbed Loki by the throat with both hands. "Give me one good reason not to _strangle_ you to death right here and now."

"I yield, I yield-" Loki slapped at Tony's hand frantically, trying to get him to let go.

"For goodness sakes, Tony- he's on our side!" Bruce pried Tony's hand off Loki's neck and pushed the two of them away from each other.

"You betcha the fate of the universe is at stake if _he's_ involved," Tony growled.

Stephen sighed tiredly, shaking his head. He could tell this was going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So some of these chapters were already written, but they needed some serious revision... so here we are! I'll get to work on fixing up chapter three tomorrow.

Despite Pepper's objections, Tony went to the Sanctum with Loki and the others. Loki then proceeded to explain to the group what the Infinity Stones were. He used his illusion magic to create an image of all six Infinity Stones. "The beginning of the Infinity Stones is of no utter importance at the moment. We'll save the history lesson for when we're not trying to save the universe. Anyway, these mystical stones control different aspects of the universe..." He made the image zoom in on each stone as he explained their properties. "Space... Reality... Power... Soul... Mind... and... lastly, Time. Legend has it there may be more, but their locations and properties are unknown to me."

Dr. Strange opened the Eye of Agamotto, revealing the Time Stone. He looked at the stone, then at Loki. "Thank you, Loki. I guess... but we knew most of that already."

"Well, the Man of Iron and..." Loki glanced at Banner warily. "... Doctor Banner didn't."

"Tell me his name again," Tony told Loki as the latter made the image of the Infinity Stones disappear.

"Thanos. A destroyer of worlds," Loki said. "A mass murderer. One of his 'adopted' children, Gamora... her people were slaughtered by Thanos and his armies. Then the remaining half of the population then vanished without a trace. Some say they too were killed off. Others believe they simply left for another planet. In either case- we have no choice, Stark. We must keep Thanos from getting the remaining Infinity Stones. He already has one."

"Don't you mean two?" Bruce asked.

Loki shook his head, lifting his hands, palms up. The Tesseract materialised out of thin air. "There _is_ this thing that I can do, Banner, called _illusions."_

"You had that this whole time?!" Banner sputtered in incredulous fury. "We could have gone back for Thor!" Loki could see a little green starting to spread across the man's pale skin.

"And did _what_ , exactly, may I ask?" The Jotun demanded. "We would have risked giving Thanos exactly what he wanted. Besides, unless the second-rate wizard standing next to me doesn't object to using his Time Stone, it's too late change things now."

"Wait... you just _left_ Thor behind?" Tony asked, glaring at Loki. He whipped his head towards Banner. "Do I have permission to strangle him _now?!?"_

"We didn't have a choice!" Loki snapped. "Heimdall sent us away with the power of the Bifrost!"

"If it's alright with the rest of you, can we all just please _shut up_ and focus on what we're dealing with right now!?!" Stephen demanded. "Good! So. Thanos has one stone, we've got two. That means that there's three more left."

"What happens if he gets all six?" Tony queried.

Stephen looked at Tony. "With one Infinity Stone, he's powerful enough to hold his own in a fight... with all six... he can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of."

"Did you _seriously_ just say 'hitherto undreamt of?'" Tony asked, leaning against a cauldron in the room.

"Are you _seriously_ leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?" Stephen demanded, crossing his arms and scowling at the inventor.

"Is that what this is...?" Tony's arm suddenly got smacked by Stephen's Cloak. The genius stared in surprise as he stopped leaning against the relic. Loki couldn't help but chuckle, earning a glare from Tony. "Are you serious? Is he serious right now?"

"I'm beginning to like this second-rate wizard," Loki declared, looking at Stephen with a mischievous smile.

"Will you stop calling me that?" Stephen asked, giving Loki a look. "I prefer the term 'Master of the Mystic Arts.'"

"If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?" Tony asked, pointing at the Eye of Agamotto. "Same thing with the Tesseract. By the way, why did the Tesseract look different in that fancy picture Loki showed us?"

"Because the Space Stone is _inside_ the Tesseract, genius," Loki muttered, annoyed.

"And anyway, no can do on the garbage disposal, Mister Stark," Stephen told Tony. "We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives."

"And I swore off dairy but then Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so..." Tony trailed off, smirking arrogantly.

"Stark Raving Hazelnuts," Stephen said, looking slightly green.

"It's not bad," Tony told him.

"A bit _chalky,"_ Stephen commented.

"'A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge' is our favorite," Wong said.

"That's a thing?" Bruce asked.

"The fate of the universe is at stake and here we are talking about _ice cream flavours,"_ Loki muttered, rolling his eyes. "Can this get any more idiotic?"

"Whatever," Tony said, looking equally annoyed- though for slightly different reasons. "Point is: things change."

"Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change," Stephen told him. "This Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos."

"And still conversely, it may also be his best chance against us."

"Well, if we don't do our jobs."

"What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?"

"Protecting your reality, d****bag."

Bruce just looked back and forth between the two, shaking his head. "Okay, guys, could we table this discussion right now? The fact is that we have these Stones. We know _where they are_. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him _now_. _"_

"Yeah, that's the... thing," Tony spoke awkwardly.

"What do you mean?"

"Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline."

"What? Tony, you lost _another_ super bot?" Bruce asked, shaking his head wearily.

"I didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving," Tony told him.

"Who could find Vision, then?" Stephen asked.

"Crap," Tony muttered. "Probably Steve Rogers."

"Oh, great," Stephen sighed exasperatedly.

"Maybe. But..."

"Call him," Bruce said, completely unaware of the events that occurred about three years ago.

"Um... am I missing something?" Loki asked, also completely oblivious.

"It's not that easy," Tony told them. "We haven't caught up in a spell, have we?"

"No," Loki and Bruce replied simultaneously.

"The Avengers broke up. We're toast."

"'Broke up?'" Banner repeated. "Like a band? Like the Beatles?"

"'Beatles?'" Loki asked. "Since when do _beetles_ have to do with anything?"

"You don't know anything about Earth, do you?" Stephen looked over at the Jotun with a raised eyebrow.

"Cap and I fell out hard," Tony said, ignoring them. "We're not on speaking terms."

"Tony, listen to me," Bruce pleaded. "Thor's gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not."

Tony sighed and hesitantly pulled out a cell phone, muttering something about flip phones. He pressed the "Call button" and was distracted by a rumbling. It was subtle. He wasn't sure if it was just a tiny earthquake or not.

Loki had noticed as well. "Do you feel that...?"

"It's like a quake," Bruce observed, starting to look concerned.

Tony looked up at Stephen and noticed that the wizard's hair was moving as a result of the rumbling. "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be the cause of this quake?"

Stephen gave Tony a strange look. Pun fully intended. "Uh, no. I don't think so."

Tony looked up at the Hulk-made hole in the ceiling. Loki followed his gaze to the hole and saw bits of debris flying above the building. "Oh no..." The Jotun made his way outside the Sanctum and stared at the destruction before him. People were running and screaming and crying, hugging their children closer, pulling the elderly after them, pleading with the injured to stay with them. 

Loki's... well, allies, he supposed, came racing out of the Sanctum as well. A woman slipped on the sidewalk in her flight and Tony barely managed to catch her. "You okay?" The woman ignored him and continued to run. A car crashed violently into a pole a few feet away. "Help him! Wong, Doc!"

"Go! Got it!" Bruce shouted, going for the car. He helped the driver out, who promptly ran off without so much as a "thank you." Bruce then took off after his allies, catching up to Loki who had taken up the rear.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., what am I looking at?" Tony asked as he put on his sunglasses, which were linked with the Artificial Intelligence F.R.I.D.A.Y.

"Not sure," F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied. "I'm working on it."

"Hey!" Tony called to Stephen. "You might wanna put that Time Stone in your back pocket, Doc!" He looked at Loki. "You better do the same for that little Borg cube of yours, Reindeer Games."

"What's a Borg-?"

"Shut up, Loki," Stephen interrupted, raising his arm, which had magical runes rotating around them.

"Lovely runes," Loki commented sarcastically, waving his hands to send the Tesseract in a pocket dimension for the time being. It would be safe there. "You must be a wonderful delight to the children."

"What did I just say?" Stephen demanded in annoyance.

There was a hum, quiet at first, but it quickly grew louder. Loki looked up to see a large, doughnut-like ship looming over Bleecker Street. "You have got to be kidding me."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., evac anyone south of 43rd Street, notify first responders," Tony ordered.

"Will do," F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied.

Loki and Bruce were coughing from the dust in the air. Stephen sighed, and with a wave of his hands, blew some wind into the street. The dust was cleared within seconds. Tony looked slightly amused for about one second before going back to being _slightly_ serious.

That's when Ebony Maw and one of his companions show up. "Hear me, and rejoice," Ebony Maw called out, beginning another one of his long, irritating speeches. "You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to..."

"I'm sorry, Earth is closed today," Tony interrupted, his sass and arrogance shining as usual. "You better pack it up and get outta here."

"Stonekeeper..." Ebony Maw gestured to Tony as he spoke. "... does this chattering animal speak for you?"

"Certainly not. I speak for myself," Stephen replied, conjuring a pair of Tao Mandalas, one for each hand. Wong copied his actions as Stephen continued, "But you’re trespassing in this city and on this planet."

"It means get lost, Squidward!"

Loki looked at Tony and decided not to ask. But he couldn't help thinking, _What is a Squidward?_

"He exhausts me," Ebony Maw said. His companion spoke something incomprehensible. "Bring me the stones," Ebony Maw ordered.

"You killed my brother," Loki told him. "You'll have to pry the stones from our cold, dead hands."

"That _is_ the plan," Ebony Maw explained. He then glared over at his companion. "Cull Obsidian! I said to bring me the stones! Now _go!!"_ Cull Obsidian dropped his huge alien hammer and dragged it along as he obeyed his boss's order.

"Banner, you want a piece?" Tony asked. Obviously he wanted Bruce to go into "Hulk mode."

"No, not really, but when do I ever get what I want?" Bruce asked.

"Um, never?" Loki said.

"That's right," Tony replied.

Bruce attempted to unleash the Hulk, but it wasn't working. Loki glanced at Bruce worriedly. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but will you hurry up already?"

"I just... I need to concentrate here for one second," Bruce said. "Come on, come on, man."

"Where's your guy?" Tony asked.

"I don't know. We've sort been havin' a thing."

"There is no time for 'a thing,'" Wong said.

"I know!" Bruce wailed. 

"I suppose we'll have to deal with this _without_ a Hulk," Loki muttered, a dagger materialising into each hand.

Without the Hulk, this battle was going to be difficult. Very, _very_ difficult.


	3. Chapter 3

As Ebony Maw's soldiers approached the team, Stark tapped the object on his chest and his nanotech Iron Man suit was equipped immediately. A shield appeared on one arm of the suit, then a set of blasters popped up that easily threw a soldier back to Maw, who gestured and deflected his massive companion into some cars _._

"Where'd that come from?" Bruce asked Tony in awe. Out of all Tony's suits, this had to be the best.

"Not bad," Loki commented.

"It's nano-tech. You like it? A little somet-"

Ebony Maw created a spike that shot out from the earth and threw Tony far up into the air. Maw attacked the rest of the team with uprooted trees, broken pieces of road, and the like. Loki dodged some of the incoming projectiles and conjured an invisible forcefield to block the rest from hitting the group. "Better come up with a plan fast," Loki growled through gritted teeth. "I can't keep this up forever..."

"Dr. Banner, if the rest of your green friend won't be joining us..." Stephen opened a Sling Ring portal underneath Bruce sending him to a nearby park. Tony returned at that very moment, throwing a car at Ebony Maw, who barely managed to tear it in half before it could crush him.

"Gotta get those stones outta here- _now!"_ Tony said.

"It stays with me," Stephen replied firmly.

"Ditto," Loki snarled at Tony. "I'm not letting some _mortal_ get their slimy little hands on the _Tesseract."_

"Exactly," Tony said. "Bye."

Tony blasted off towards Ebony Maw but his flight was cut short by Cull Obsidian's hammer, which collided with him and sent the armoured man crashing through a building and into the park at high speed. He slammed into the ground, skidded across the pavement and grass (tearing up said grass in the process), and collided with a tree.

"Tony!- you okay?" Bruce asked, scrambling over to Tony worriedly. "How we doing? Good? bad?"

"Really, really good," Tony answered sarcastically. "Really good. Do you plan on helping out?"

"I'm trying. He won't come out."

Ebony Maw was still putting up a fight. Loki's barrier finally gave way, leaving the group open for attack.

Smirking with pleasure, Maw telekinetically lifted several bricks from the ground and turns them into sharp points. He sent them hurtling towards the three sorcerers. While Loki ducked for cover, Stephen and Wong used their Sling Rings and made portals, sending the spikes back towards Maw. Maw moved a car to protect himself, but one spike still hit the side of his head, a stream of blood streaming down his face upon impact. With an angry snarl, Maw used a broken fire hydrant's water stream to knock Wong back several meters, rendering the wizard unconscious.

Stephen snapped a whip of magical energy around Maw's hands and yanked. But the ugly alien flew forward with the pull and pinned Stephen upside down against a building, using the bricks to trap him. Loki looked up from his hiding place, debating whether to help rescue Stephen or just take off and hope he could get to the other side of the universe before Thanos could ever find him.

_"You really are the worst brother."_

Loki looked down at the ground, then back at the struggling Stephen. "Ugh... fine." He conjured a pair of daggers and waited.

"Your powers are _quaint,"_ Ebony Maw mocked, his voice lighter with amusement. "You must be popular with children." Maw tried to grab the Eye of Agamotto but jerked back with a hiss of pain when it burnt his hand.

"It's a simple spell but quite unbreakable," Stephen told him.

"Then I'll take it off your _corpse."_

Maw pulled Strange away from the building and threw him to the ground violently. Strange tried to open the Eye of Agamotto to use it, but utility cables had suddenly pinned Strange's arms to his sides, interrupting the spell and closing the Eye, while another cable wrapped around his throat, and tightened painfully. The wizard gasped for air as he spoke, "You'll find... removing a dead man's spell... troublesome..."

"You'll only wish you were dead," Maw replied, just as Stephen fell unconscious. The alien raised a portion of street pavement to use as a carrier, but the Cloak of Levitation had other ideas. It yanked Stephen free of the cable and quickly flew away, carrying its master with it.

No way was it going to let Maw take Stephen without a fight.

"NO!" Ebony Maw shouted. He made to go after them, but a dagger was flung and had plunged deep into his shoulder. The alien raised his uninjured arm and whirled around, slamming his fist into the face of his assailant- who was none other than Loki. 

"This is for my brother!" Loki snarled, and then he attempted to stab Ebony Maw in the throat. But the alien grabbed Loki's wrist, the blade just inches from Maw's neck.

"I should have left you to bleed out when you came crawling onto our doorstep," Maw growled. "Tell me... how did you break free of the Mind Stone's control?... Was it the Stonekeeper who helped you? Odin? Oh... I know now... it was your mother, was it not? The _witch?"_

Loki narrowed his eyes in anger. "Do not ever speak of my mother again!" He attempted to knee Maw in the shin but the alien tossed him aside before he could. Loki's back slammed into a wall and Ebony Maw telekinetically used a broken lamp post to pin the Jotun there. 

"Did I hit a _nerve?"_ Maw asked mockingly. Loki merely remained silent, glaring at Maw. "No matter," Ebony Maw continued. "Give me the Tesseract... or die. And then I can simply pry it off your corpse. Personally, I prefer that option."

Loki tilted his head slightly, smirking at the other alien's words. "You find this amusing?" Maw snarled, annoyed. The Jotun should be terrified of him, not _amused_ by him.

"I just think it rather funny that you intend on taking the Tesseract from me," Loki explained, a chuckle escaping his lips, "when _I'm_ not even here."

"What?!" Maw reached forward to grab Loki by the throat, but his hand phased through, making the illusion disappear. "I am going to kill that runt the second I get my hands on him..."

Meanwhile, the real Loki was desperately trying to keep up with the Cloak of Levitation as it carried Stephen away. The Jotun made a mental note to practice using his telekinesis more often- it was easy enough for small objects like daggers, but a fully grown person? Not so much.

They passed over the park and Loki glanced down to see Tony battling Cull Obsidian. Tony looked up quickly and said, "Kid, that's the wizard! Get on it!"

"On it!" some kid in an ugly red costume (at least Loki thought it was ugly) replied. He did not want to know what that kid was thinking when he made that getup. The Jotun looked back and saw Maw was chasing after them, carrying himself with his own telekinetic powers. And he was catching up. Great... Loki halted his flight and landed on a skyscraper. Maw followed suit, seething with rage now.

"You had _one_ job," Ebony Maw snarled. "To bring us the Tesseract. Instead, you keep it from us. And what did it cost you? Your home, your family, your life." The alien then smiled slightly. "But if you help us, perhaps Thanos will bring back some of what you lost."

"He could bring back my brother?" Loki asked. "My father? My mother? Perhaps even Asgard?"

"Yes, Laufeyson. He can."

Loki would be lying if he said the offer wasn't tempting. But the memories held him back.

_"You really are the worst brother."_

_"See, Loki, life is about, it's about growth. It's about change. But you seem to just wanna stay the same."_

_"Loki, I thought the world of you. I thought we were gonna fight side by side forever. But, at the end of the day, you're you, I'm me... I don't know, maybe there's still good in you, but let's be honest, our paths diverged a long time ago."_

Loki closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. "I... am Loki _Odinson_ of Asgard. And you know what?" A pair of daggers appeared in his hands. "I'm not going to be the bad guy anymore. Too long I've wasted my life on petty revenge. Too long I've wasted my family, pushing them away when I needed them most. But no longer!" Loki pointed a dagger at Ebony Maw as he spoke. "You'll never have the Tesseract! Not you or that spineless creature Thanos. Do you hear me?! You've got five seconds to get off Midgard and take your army with you before I-!"

Ebony Maw, quickly bored with Loki's speech, decided to knock the Jotun out by telepathically flinging into his face a metal toolbox that some worker must have forgotten. "I suppose we'll have to do this the hard way then."

* * *

Loki stirred groggily, briefly forgetting recent events and wondering if he should sleep in or not. But something was nagging him, telling him that it wasn't safe and to wake up. The Jotun opened his eyes, his sight blurry. He vaguely realised that he was hanging by a set of chains that were bolted to the ceiling. As Loki's sight cleared, he saw long, thin crystalline spikes surrounding him, just inches away from his face.

"Do you like them?" a voice asked, no doubt Ebony Maw. "They were originally designed for microsurgery, but after a few modifications... it could also be turned into a torture device. I won't lie to you- they really are quite painful."

"You'll never find the Tesseract," Loki growled. "I've survived _worse_ than this."

"Really? Like what?" Maw asked sarcastically, not really caring. He just wanted to get under the Jotun's skin.

"Oh, one time my brother got his idea in his head that we were going to hunt down a Bilgesnipe-"

"I don't care," Maw interrupted, practically on the verge of snapping. "Give me the Tesseract."

"No. You will _never_ get your hands on it."

"Oh, but we will. With or without your help, Loki _Odinson."_ Ebony Maw pressed a button on the wall and Loki braced himself for the pain that was to come. That's when Ebony Maw started talking to someone on a comm. "Yes? He's awake? Good." Maw gave Loki a sadistic smile. "Looks like the other Stonekeeper is awake. I'll come back for you later. Hopefully you will be more cooperative then."

With that, Maw left without another word. The spikes started to pierce Loki's skin and he bit his lip. Just as they started to go deeper, they suddenly retreated. _What...?_ The spikes disappeared into thin air and the chains around Loki's wrists and ankles released him, letting the Jotun fall to the floor.

"Oowff!" Loki winced in pain as he landed.

"You okay there, Mister Loki?" 

Loki looked up to see that his saviour was the kid in the weird outfit. Only now it looked metal for some reason. "Do I _look_ fine?!" the Jotun snapped. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm... uh..." The kid hesitated. "You can call me Spider-Man."

Loki stared at him blankly. "I don't get it... bleh. I don't care. But... why are you helping me?"

"As far as I can tell," Spider-Man replied, "you're on our side. At least, I think so. You are on our side, right?"

"I'm on the side that kills Thanos," Loki said, conjuring his daggers. "Now let's go before Maw finds out that you set me free."

"But what about the wizard?"

"What wizard?"

"The one with the cool cape."

 _Oh... that wizard,_ Loki thought, finally remembering. "Oh. Him. Yes, I suppose we can go help the second-rate wizard too. And I thought he said it was the... Cloak of... something." 

* * *

Tony winced as he watched Stephen being tortured by Ebony Maw. He didn't care much for the wizard (actually, he didn't care about the guy at all, really), but Tony did know how it felt to be in that much pain. The inventor touched his chest, where the Arc Reactor used to be. 

The Cloak of Levitation suddenly tapped Tony on the arm. Whirling around, he raised his armoured hand to shoot, but he saw it was just the Cloak. "Wow, you're a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?" he asked in annoyance.

"Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty..." came a voice. Tony and the Cloak turned to see Spider-Man and Loki dropping down silently from a nearby platform.

"What the-" Tony couldn't believe his eyes.

"I know what you're gonna say," Spider-Man started.

"You should not be here." The Cloak of Levitation floated to Tony's side, as if agreeing.

"I was gonna go home-"

"I don't wanna hear it."

"But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way-"

"And now I gotta hear it."

The Cloak shook its collar and shrugged. Loki looked back and forth at Tony and Spider-Man and asked, "Is this an important conversation right now? Because in case you've forgotten, we still have to rescue your friend-"

 _"Colleague,"_ Tony corrected in annoyance.

"Whatever. The point is, can't your little squabble wait?"

"It's just- you can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man when there's no neighborhood," Spider-Man said. All of them, even the Cloak, just stared at him blankly. "Okay. That didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say. Um... say did you ever see this really old movie, _Aliens?"_

Loki wrinkled his nose. "Thor told me of it once. It sounded stupid."

Spider-Man looked at the Jotun with his jaw dropped. "Are you _serious?!?"_

"Get to the _point_ , Peter," Tony said.

"I thought his name was Spider-Man?" Loki spoke up.

"So here's what we're gonna do," Peter told them, ignoring Loki's query. "We're gonna..."


End file.
